In Telecom the joke before the big meeting was:
"Software is never finished, you just need to tell the Customer it is".
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MQA entering into administration - comparable to Chapter 11 in the US
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In Telecom the joke before the big meeting was:
"Software is never finished, you just need to tell the Customer it is".
My heart bleeds. Well, it would if it had any blood. You know what they say about blood and stones.
Not a MQA fan. But what happens to all the users if this goes bust?
Perhaps they finally learn to stop buying digital music in pointless, abusive proprietary formats.
But in all seriousness, the downloaded files should all keep working. I am not sure what happens to streaming formats, if there is a god, or if we are just slightly lucky, they will go away quietly.
Your device keeps working. Services may continue to offer the content they have. But to the extent MQA was doing the encoding, there will not be any new content.
I met Bob Stuart some time ago. Out of the earshot of others, as I didn't want to embarrass him, I asked him why he 'started' MQA and what problem was it solving ?
He told me because of limited speed and bandwidth of the internet, MQA was necessary to download CD quality and better files. I gently told him we'd all have >300 Mb internet shortly as I already had 1 Gb to my house. We could therefore download or stream DSD/DSX, 96/24, whatever we wanted, maybe on a subscription basis. I said the network phenomenon was analogous to Moore's Law, thus any reason for MQA would go away. He just kept smiling.
Never did like those Meridian speakers - too hot on the top!
He told me because of limited speed and bandwidth of the internet, MQA was necessary to download CD quality and better files. I gently told him we'd all have >300 Mb internet shortly as I already had 1 Gb to my house. We could therefore download or stream DSD/DSX, 96/24, whatever we wanted, maybe on a subscription basis. I said the network phenomenon was analogous to Moore's Law, thus any reason for MQA would go away. He just kept smiling.
Never did like those Meridian speakers - too hot on the top!
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i am reminded of a throwaway line from the "Lethal Weapon" movies...
when you hear news like this my first thought is... "my day is looking better already"
HOWEVER... there's a big caveat... if its like Chapter 11 the company may very well trade out into profitability, eventually
I hesitate to say that its over. It may not be. There's value in the existing contracts with hardware and service vendors.
To me thought it does put egg on the faces of all the electronics companies who went into this.
when you hear news like this my first thought is... "my day is looking better already"
HOWEVER... there's a big caveat... if its like Chapter 11 the company may very well trade out into profitability, eventually
I hesitate to say that its over. It may not be. There's value in the existing contracts with hardware and service vendors.
To me thought it does put egg on the faces of all the electronics companies who went into this.
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I’m not familiar with MQA’s people. Does anyone know who Anthony Edward Rupert is?
He joined Meridian’s board in 2011 and switched to MQA’s in 2015, but it seems he resigned three weeks ago.
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk
He joined Meridian’s board in 2011 and switched to MQA’s in 2015, but it seems he resigned three weeks ago.
Anthony Edward RUPERT personal appointments - Find and update company information - GOV.UK
Free company information from Companies House including registered office address, filing history, accounts, annual return, officers, charges, business activity
Was it even a solution? It's was a licensing business model looking for a market. The actual system and method being licensed didn't do anything of value because the market has spoken.
I’m not familiar with MQA. Does anyone know who Anthony Edward Rupert is?
He joined Meridian in 2011 and MQA in 2015, but it seems he resigned three weeks ago.
Anthony Edward RUPERT personal appointments - Find and update company information - GOV.UK
Free company information from Companies House including registered office address, filing history, accounts, annual return, officers, charges, business activity
On their current version of web site MQA Ltd. does not say who their CFO is. I suspect that person occupied CFO spot. I could not find archived copy of web site to verify.
Galliardist
Major Contributor
If you read what they said, there’s mention of SCL6 which is a scalable Bluetooth codec capable of 20Mbps. Whether it’s needed or not, parts of the audio industry are interested. It appears that SCL6 is what they are selling now and they want to dump MQA in with it by selling the company. British law being what it is, any administrator will look to split these apart if they decide MQA has litttle value.
This is potentially a dangerous time for the industry as a new owner of MQA tech may well be prepared to weaponise that technology (how, I’m not sure, but future MQA only releases remain a possibility).
This is potentially a dangerous time for the industry as a new owner of MQA tech may well be prepared to weaponise that technology (how, I’m not sure, but future MQA only releases remain a possibility).
They recently renamed MQAir into SCL6. Likely to avoid any association with original MQA codec.
A reasonable thing to do when your compensation check bounces.
Galliardist
Major Contributor
Rupert was Richemont’s representative on the MQA board. Richemont , owner of a lot of luxury product brands, invested in Meridian because of MQA and have ploughed in tens of millions of pounds to try to make it work.I’m not familiar with MQA’s people. Does anyone know who Anthony Edward Rupert is?
He joined Meridian’s board in 2011 and switched to MQA’s in 2015, but it seems he resigned three weeks ago.
Anthony Edward RUPERT personal appointments - Find and update company information - GOV.UK
Free company information from Companies House including registered office address, filing history, accounts, annual return, officers, charges, business activity
The last straw seems to have been that MQA weren’t able to embed their codec into the Bluetooth standard, the last place where it’s compression may have found a market. So Richemont have stopped ploughing money into a product that they shouldn’t have touched in the first place, MQA Ltd have revised their Bluetooth tech into something saleable and brought in tbe receivers.
The surprise is that SCL6 itself obviates the need for compression in Bluetooth making MQA worth even less!
Zensō
Major Contributor
Tidal is the only service deeply invested in MQA, I wonder if they’d buy it out? Or perhaps WMG?
So, who is that "main financial backer" that wants out then? Looks like that may be the big labels then. According to this: https://uk.globaldatabase.com/company/mqa-limited#div_shareholders Sony is a major shareholder, and according to this it's not the only label: https://www.stereophile.com/content/mqa-expands-its-reach
Here is another list of shareholders:
source: https://www.companysearchesmadesimple.com/company/uk/09123512/mqa-limited/#people
Seems like the two main investors are investment companies, one of which is the former Richemont, now called Reinet, led by Johann Rupert, son of Anthony Edward.
Here is another list of shareholders:
source: https://www.companysearchesmadesimple.com/company/uk/09123512/mqa-limited/#people
Seems like the two main investors are investment companies, one of which is the former Richemont, now called Reinet, led by Johann Rupert, son of Anthony Edward.
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Hopefully drop it completely
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